long story... the jist of it is this: "the fusion core must have sustained more damage than..." there is no lie there. misdirection, _possibly_, but no lie - they probably had no idea what the actual extent of the damage to the 'fusion core' was: pounding from 12 covenant capital ships, crash landing with a massively static object, continual combat raging inside the hold of the ship, etc. how can you begin to gauge the extent of the damage.

if it is a misderection, than its worse than even lying. lying, she could just be cutting a long story short, something she could clarify later. misdirecting, and would e419 not only be victim, but us (MC) too.